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Ok, I've decided to get winter tires to go along with the RT-615s I'll be getting. I'm not looking for a "performance winter" tire that sacrifices some deep snow grip for dry handling performance. I also don't want to break the bank with these, so I'm looking for good bang for the buck. I'm going to fit these to a used set of E30 bottlecap wheels, or steel wheels if I can't find bottlecaps. I'm going to get 185/70R14s or 185/65R14s since thinner tires improve performance in snow. What do you guys think of these tires?

I got a installed & balanced quote for the Graspic ($117 CAD) and the KW17 ($95) not including tax. Obviously I'm going to shop around some more and hopefully do better. This is the price range I'm looking at. I don't want to spend much more than this per tire. Are the Nokians out of my range?

I recommand any Nokian winters, but they are pricey, I don't know how much they are now but they were about $100-$130 per tire, I've been to few tire places that only charged me $40 for mount & balance after I bought a set of tires from them.

I have a really good review around here somewhere, I'll see if I can locate it.

The absolute best performing tire is the Michelin X-Ice, followed closely by the Graspic, KW11 (no tests of the 17 or 19 handy), and a few others.

If you really want an amazing winter tire for extremely little cash, look into the Nexen Eurowin tires. You can find 185/70/14 installed and balanced for $280 including tax, and they are amazing tires. I'm now running them on both my car and my mother's E46 (which had Pirelli Snowsports, which are 2x the price and actually not as capable).

Oh, and about the Nokians: They have fallen behind significantly in recent years. Their new designs are no better than the old (such as the old NRW compared to the new RSi), while the competition has taken huge strides.

Quack and Mystikal, thanks for the lightning quick posts! Mystikal, I have also heard that the X-Ice was excellent, but I shied away from it due to the price (I expected it to be a good deal more expensive than the Graspic-I'll have to call around and see if this is the case.) I am interested in those Nexen Eurowin tires. How do they compare to the KW17, KW19 and the Graspics? I'm interested in the KW19 because they seem to be more of a "deep snow" tire than the KW17.

I have called around, and was able to find the Gislaved Nord Frost 3 for $115 per tire, and the Champiro WT GT Radial for $100 (both installed and balanced.) Have the Gislaveds "falled behind" like the Nokians, or are they still worth it?

I don't have any instrumented tests of the Nexen's, since they are not sold in the U.S. yet. European sucjective testers seem to like them very much though.

I really don't recommend non-performance winter tires though. Our roads are 90% dry/wet in the winter (no ice/snow), so how a tire responds in those conditions is much more important than deep snow traction. I have never run anything but H-rated winter tires and have yet to get stuck in everyday driving.

If you really want an amazing winter tire for extremely little cash, look into the Nexen Eurowin tires. You can find 185/70/14 installed and balanced for $280 including tax, and they are amazing tires.

Kumho KW19 - they are ok, good value, not much complain, but I prefer something with better traction on ice

Viking Snowtech - super cheap, but I was surprise and very impressive with it in light snow, well at least it's enough for me to drive around in Toronto. I wish the mileage on it is longer though.

Gislaved Nordfrost 5 (or Nordfrost 3, I forgot haha) - no complain at all, did well in ice and snow.

Kumho KW11 - useless, I spinned around in the snow. I definitely not comfortable with it. But I think Kumho discontinued it.

Toyo G02+ - very very good (even heavy snow during my trip to some out of town area), a little pricey compare to the other that I tried. By the way I heard if you drive more on highway, the Toyo Garit KX is better than G02+. But I've never used that one, so no comment.